Thought and Change

By Ernest Gellner,

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Thought and Change as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Gellner is, for me, one of the most original social thinkers of our time and shocks you out of your assumptions.

In this book, among much else, he offers the most incisive version of his theory of nationalism. Turning Kedourie on his head just as Marx did to Hegel, he argues that nationalist ideas are so much froth and are a product of larger structural forces. They arise in the transition from agro-literate to industrial societies.

Nationalism’s real significance is not a return to a folk past, but its creation of high cultures in the language of the people propagated…

From John's list on nationalism and identity.

Want books like Thought and Change?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Thought and Change.

Browse books like Thought and Change

Book cover of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Book cover of Cathleen Ni Houlihan
Book cover of The Ethnic Origins of Nations

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,188

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in nationalism, modernity, and politics?

Nationalism 67 books
Modernity 55 books
Politics 772 books